On our way at last

On Friday 24th January the Wallers finally made it onto a plane out of Perth with close to 160kg of luggage. With three bikes, two snowboards and all our luggage for a year there was a fair bit of culling going on when we did the final packing. I think we all breathed a sigh of relief when we got everything checked in. There was definite relief when we got it all into the hire car considering we used a trailer (thanks Adam) to get to the airport in Perth. While we are thanking people we want to say a massive thanks to everyone who helped us with cleaning, packing moving etc as well as Sue and Mac for accommodating us all for a week.
 

Our week in Sydney has been fun with not much to do in the way of jobs. We have been out exploring up to Palm Beach where we climbed up to Barrenjoey lighthouse for a fantastic view over Palm Beach and Pittwater. We then went on to discover the delights of ocean pools which were a first for Fiona and Symi. We followed this with a long and scenic drive (some might say we were not quite sure where we were at times) through the very expensive houses near Palm Beach. Evidently if Rob lived in Sydney this is where it would be - with the proviso that he had a lot of money and did not need to work. 

Another day we met up with Liam a school friend of Rob's and walked along the stunning Sydney coastline from Waverley to Coogee. Liam was assistant director on the TV show Wonderland and amused us by pointing out the areas they had filmed in as well as the house used (Photo) for the outside shots of Wonderland.

 

 

 

Other highlights have been catching up with family and friends. Rob managed 4 rides which was fantastic. These were Old Man Valley at Hornsby (short and sweet), Lane Cover River National Park at Pennant Hills, Lake Parramatta (surprisingly the highlight, very technical and thanks Eugene for showing the way) and the famous Manly Dam.   Photo is at Lake Parramatta, preparing for the many rock drops to come at Moab :). Rob also managed to be in Sydney when HMAS Creswell at Jervis Bay was renaming it's training divisions (one of them Waller), will do a separate post on what was a great day..

                

We made it back to Sydney International Airport on Feb 3 without drama for the longest Monday of our lives (40 hours). We flew out of Sydney on the A380 (very smooth and quiet, pity about the massive wing view in cattle class) and landed at LAX on time. We eventually made it through the slow immigration with some nervous moments being quizzed about our length of stay. We picked up the hire car without drama, just fitting our gear in took 20 minutes. We then began to experience the MASSIVE freeways of LA, just the thing for a tired brain. After navigating to a Walmart and buying a GPS system, Fiona and Rob had the pleasure of trying to program to our destination. It should have been easy but the long Monday was taking its effect. We eventually arrived at our AirBnB which is great. Our host Octavio is very friendly and helpful and we have been picking his brains on how to function in LA. 

After a long sleep it’s time to go RV shopping with the aim of not spending too long in LA.